Mass Effect: As the Years Go By
by dragonshensi
Summary: Follow Shepard and his group of friends from kids in school, to soldiers in battle as they face enemies, love, loss, and a galaxy unprepared of a multi-species group of friends. Rated M for possibility in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1: War Games

Mass Effect: As the Years Go By

Chapter 1: War Games

"Garrus! Give us some cover fire!" Shepard yelled as he raced across the battlefield, shooting a quick glance back at his turian friend, perched on top of the hill behind him.

"Got you covered Commander!" Garrus shouted back, firing into a couple of enemies a few feet in front of Shepard.

Shepard nodded as he turned to his companions around him, "Wrex and Ashley, follow me while we try to push the mechs back! Kaiden! Protect Tali while she tries to override the mechs! If she can do it, this battle will be over!"

"Aye aye Commander!" the rest of his squad replied, nodding.

With both Wrex and Ashley by his side, Commander Shepard raced forward into the line of mechs marching towards him and his team. He fired into the robots, managing to take down five of them with perfectly aimed head-shots. Wrex, his krogan comrade, didn't even bother firing at the mechs. He simply roared as he charged at them, his head bowed. He barreled through the enemies like they were nothing.

Shepard dove behind a rock, barely missing the bullets from the mechs, which bounced off the boulder harmlessly. Commander Shepard stole a glance at his other squadmate, Ashley Williams. She was pinned down by at least six mechs. She stood behind a tree, not even getting the option to counterattack, the mechs never stopped firing.

"Hey Garrus! I need some help here!" Ashley yelled, which the turian answered by taking out half of the mechs with head shots in just a matter of seconds.

"You're welcome Williams!"Garrus said, smirking a bit from his position on the hill. Ashley simply stuck out her tongue at him, before leaning out of her cover behind the tree and taking care of the rest of the mechs.

"Tali! We need these mechs taken care of now!" Shepard ordered, speaking into his comm in his ear.

"I almost got it Shepard!" Tali replied, frantically tapping on her omni-tool. Mechs were slowly closing in on her position, but was having a bit of trouble getting to her thanks to Kaiden. Suddenly, the mechs started making a whirring sound, stopping in place. As if a switch was turned out, the mechs all across the battlefield powered down and crumbled to the ground.

"There we go! Success!" Tali squealed in delight, raising up and jumping in place happily.

"Bout time." Wrex said, grumbling a bit. He walked up beside her, completely covered in a vast array of paint colors.

"You do know Wrex the object of the game was to NOT get hit right?" Kadien asked, laying his paintball gun to the side.

"Hmph. I'm not afraid of getting paint on me and hiding behind cover the entire time." Wrex replied as the rest of the team joined them.

"Wrex this was a pratice simulation. If those were real bullets you would have been creamed!" Shepard said, waving his arms around. The krogan simply rolled his eyes, but mumbled in agreement.

A nearby door suddenly opened as Captian Anderson walked into the playroom. He had a big smile on his face as he looked down at his students, who for only being ten years old, were showing remarkable skills. Out of all the kids in the school, Shepard and his friends were showing the most progress. Anderson knew that while he did have a hand in that, it was mostly Shepard. That kid showed amazing leadership skills, even if he was just a child.

"Shepard's right Wrex. You can't simply charge into a group of enemies like that and expect to live. You need to learn how to duck and cover once in awhile." Anderson said, patting his krogan student on the head.

"Yes Captain Anderson." Wrex replied, looking down and kicking the dirt.

"Other than that, you all did remarkably well. You even beat your previous time on taking down the mechs. I'm proud of all of you!" Anderson praised, which received a bunch of shouts and cheers from his little students, "Now go on and get cleaned up. Lunch should be ready soon."

His students nodded as they tossed their paintball guns to the side and raced out through the open door, following their "Commander" Shepard. Anderson couldn't help but laugh, tapping a bunch of numbers onto his omni-tool and reactivating the mechs. The mechs quickly rose back onto their feet and began cleaning up the room. For awhile now, all the rest of his students started calling Shepard Commander. It was true that he was obviously the leader of their group, even if no one had openly stated it. He had no idea when they started calling him that though, it just started happening over the course of their war games. Even when they weren't in the playroom practicing, the rest of the kids called Shepard Commander. Shepard didn't seem to mind it though.

As Anderson began picking up the discarded guns, he never thought he would be training and guiding kids all of species, not that he was complaining. It was part of a Council plan, to try and get the species of all the galaxies to coexist peacefully with one another. The best way to do that was with children of all the species. That's how the school was founded, and how Anderson was recruited. Other teachers and soldiers from different species were also hired for this project, so the staff of the school was an assortment of human, asari, salarian, krogan, batarian, and even vorcha. While it was difficult for the staff of the school to get along, and even some of the students, it seemed Shepard's group got along quite well. So far, the Council's plan of a multi-species armed force was working, at least when it came to Shepard's group of friends.

"Never thought I would spend my golden years teaching races of all worlds," Anderson said to himself, smiling a bit, "and I wouldn't have it any other way."


	2. Chapter 2: The Asari

Chapter 2: The Asari

Shepard walked across the cafeteria, holding his lunch tray. He made his way down across the room to where his teammates were, at the far corner. The rest of the students knew that Shepard and his friends sat in the same exact spot every day. As he came to the table, his friends looked up from their meals and smiled at him, which he smiled in return.

"I'm so sick of this cafeteria food." Shepard said as he sat down next to Tali, who fidgeted a bit and glanced at him. Due to her helmet, Shepard could not tell she was blushing.

"Yeah, this stuff is worse than the food the army eats." Ashley replied, poking at her food, " I should know, my daddy let me try it once. I thought it was awful but eating this garbage I would gobble that stuff down."

"Well you could just give it to Wrex. He eats anything isn't that right?"Garrus snickered, turning to Wrex, who was eating worse than a pig. He wasn't even using utensils, just shoving the food into his mouth with his hands.

"You guys are whimps and whiners." Wrex said between mouthfuls, " Back on Tunchanka we are used to eating vermin! This stuff is rich people food compared to that!"

"I don't mind this food actually." Kaiden replied, "Although now I can't eat it cause watching Wrex eat makes me loses my appetite."

"Fine then wuss give me."Wrex said, grabbing Kaiden's tray and pulling it to him. He then starts devouring down Kaiden's meal, splattering some of the food onto Tali's helmet.

Tali sighed, grabbing a napkin and wiping away the slop, "Geez Wrex. I've seen vorcha who have better table manners better than you."

At that everyone at the table burst out in laughter, except for Wrex, who chose to ignore that statement and finish Kaiden's meal. Shepard just chuckled at Wrex, despite his intimidating appearance the krogan was a good sport and handled teasing real well, especially if food is distracting. Shepard's eyes suddenly caught sight of Anderson coming towards their table. He motioned for all the others and instantly the laughter stopped. Everyone at the table straightened up and even Wrex stopped eating quickly cleaned himself up just as Anderson stood before them.

"Hello Captain Anderson." Shepard greeted, saluting him. Noticing their Commander saluting, the rest of his friends did likewise.

Anderson smiled down at the kids, before saluting them as well, "At ease soldiers. Are you kids ready for another war game after lunch?"

"YES!" All of them said in unison, raising up from their seats and pumping their fists into the air.

"Excellent! Because I have a new team member for your crew." Anderson replied, stepping aside to reveal a little girl behind him.

Her skin was blue and by the looks of it her hair was actually tenactles. The girl had bright blue eyes, with cute black freckles underneath them all across the top of her cheeks. Shepard, being only twelve, had never given girls much of a thought. He was too busy with training and just enjoying hanging out with his team. Now however, he had to admit, this girl was very pretty. He didn't even notice Tali was glaring at him, before turning her cold gaze to the new girl.

"Oh...an asari." Wrex stated, instantly losing interest.

"And a cute one at that." Garrus added, winking at the girl, who blushed in response.

"Her name is Liara. Make her feel at home kids."Anderson said, patting the asari gently on the shoulder.

Shepard leaped down from his seat and stood in front of her, smiling. Liara shifted a bit away from him, a little shy. However, she returned the smile he gave with one of her own.

"Nice to meet you Liara. I'm Shepard." Shepard said, holding out his hand.

"Nice...Nice to meet you Shepard. I'm Liara."the asari answered, averting her eyes and smiling as she reached out and shook his hand.

Watching the exchange between Shepard and Liara, Ahsley leaned over to Tali and whispered, "Looks like you have some competition now."

At that, Tali turned to her and shot her a look, but said nothing.

"I'm very excited to see her skills on the battlefield today during the war game." Anderson said, "Show her the ropes everyone and since it's her first day. Make sure to watch her alright?"

"Will do sir." Shepard replied, nodding.

"Good. I'll see you all there then." Anderson said, turning away and walking out of the cafeteria.

After their lunch Shepard and the gang showed the asari around the school. At first she was shy and barely said a word to them. After awhile, she started warming up to everyone, even Wrex. She explained to them that she was a "pureblood" asari, which often lead to bullying and other problems in her life. So she was mostly a loner and wasn't use to people treating her with kindness. Shepard and the others asked her what a pureblood asari was exactly, but she didn't want to answer that question just yet, so they let the subject drop.

They soon arrived at the battlefield, quickly arming themselves and putting on their practice armor gear. Liara wasn't too comfortable holding a gun, even if it wasn't a real one. Not only that, the practice armor didn't fit her right, it was almost comically way too big for her. She was blushing furiously as everyone giggled at the way she looked.

"This is so embarrassing." Liara said, mumbling a bit to herself.

"Don't sweat it. It's only a practice battle. Just stay back and let us do our thing." Garrus said, trying to comfort her and trying to stifle his laughter.

"Besides, I'll make sure this battle is over quickly." Wrex said, crackling his finger and loading his paint gun.

"Just be sure this time you at least TRY to dodge the enemy fire." Tali replied, smirking. Wrex just grunted in response.

An whistle sounded throughout the battlefeild room, signaling that the war game was about to begin. Commander Shepard and his team quickly got into position, crouching behind rocks and trees. The doorway on the other side of the room opened, and out came about a dozen mechs into the room. Instantly Shepard knew something was wrong. He had seen real firearms before, the school has many soldiers around the premises, to protect the children of the school and also help dissolve conflicts between the different species in the school, be they student or teacher. Shepard noticed that these mechs were carrying the same guns as the soldiers did, and not their usual paintball guns. The mechs instantly starting firing upon the group. The bullets started shattering against the rocks and trees as the gang could do nothing but cower under cover.

"What in the world is going on!? Those are real bullets!"Kaiden shouted as he crouched behind a large boulder alongside Garrus.

"What in the world is Captain Anderson thinking! We aren't ready for this!" Tali said, terror in her voice.

"Even if we were. We can't fight back with nothing but stupid paintball guns!" Wrex growled, shooting at one of the mechs with his gun. The paintball splattered the mech on the head, which would have usually been an instant kill. However this time it had no effect. The mech just kept firing at them.

"You have a plan Commander?" Garrus yelled to Shepard, who was gazing around the battlefield.

"The mechs are starting to advance on us. We can't hope to beat them with these things." Shepard answered, tossing the useless gun to the side, "We need to find a way to escape this room. Captain Anderson will surely will stop the mechs in time."

"We can't just run from cover and make a break for it Shepard!" Ashley retorted, "Those mechs will cut us down before we take a step!"

"Tali. Do you think you can still hack one of them?"Shepard asked, which Tali started punching random codes into her omni-tool.

"These mechs are different from our usual ones."Tali answered, "Their hardware is a little more advanced. I may be able to hack one of them and unleash it on the rest, but it won't be for long."

" Do it then. Everyone, prepare to run like the wind!" Shepard said.

A few more punches into her omni-tool and Tali was successful in hacking one of the mechs. Instantly the mech turned on its comrades, firing into the nearest one and bringing it down. As the rest of the enemy mechs turned their attention to the hacked one, Shepard motioned for everyone to follow him as he made a dash across the battlefield. Everyone ran behind him, close on his heels, as they made a wide circle around the enemy. The exit was on the far left side of the room, unforunately, very close to where the enemy mechs were now.

The team was almost there when Liara, with her gear that was way too big for her, stumbled and fell to the ground. She was on the verge of tears and was shaking terribly she was so scared. This sure wasn't how she expected her first day here to go. Suddenly a huge arm wrapped around her waist and picked her up like she was nothing but a stuffed animal. She looked up to see Wrex carrying her, running as if she weighed nothing.

He looked down and flashed her a smile, "No one gets left behind. Not even a newbie like you."

Liara wiped her eyes and grinned up at the krogan, "Thank you."


End file.
